Book Giveaway: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

If How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia sounds like a business self-help book, it is because the author inventively evokes that genre to tell the rags-to-riches story of an unnamed narrator in an unidentified developing nation.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia came out earlier this week, and it is already receiving a lot of praise. The New York Times calls this novel a “a compelling story that works on two levels — in this case as a deeply moving and highly specific tale of love and ambition, and as a larger, metaphorical look at the mind-boggling social and economic changes sweeping ‘rising Asia.’” Moreover, “Mr. Hamid reaffirms his place as one of his generation’s most inventive and gifted writers.” Read The New York Times review here, another review from NPR here, and an interview with the author from The Atlantichere.

Among other commendations, Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist was shortlisted for the Man Booker Award and Moth Smoke was a PEN/Hemingway Award finalist.

I have one paperback advance copy of How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia to give away to a lucky winner.

To enter:

1. Leave a comment below about what you’re currently reading or what you’re planning to read next.

2. Email me at cthomas@oaklandlibrary.org with a copy of your comment and contact information so I can reach you if I draw your name.

I’ll draw a winner at random on Tuesday morning, March 12. Thanks for entering!

Comments

I'm looking forward to reading *A Confederacy of Dunces* before/in preparation for my first-ever trip to New Orleans in May (it's been on my to-read list for many years, but now I have some imminent motivation!)... after I finish *A Tale of Two Cities* (currently slogging through that alongside a student I tutor, who chose it as his independent reading book).

I'm reading =The Legendary King of San Miguel= by Elizabeth Sherman Lester, which I got via a Link+ loan from the Whittier College Library. I just finished TC Boyle's novel =San Miguel= about the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, and was so fascinated with the stories of the women who had lived there that I tracked down Elizabeth Lester's memoirs.

I just finished reading "City of Thieves" by David Benioff. I really enjoyed this book - it made me respect a Russian winter. I am not sure what I am going to read next... Anyone have a recommendation for me?

I'm just starting "Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries," by "The Basketball Diaries" author, Jim Carroll. On deck to follow this one up is finally one that kept slipping downward on the reading list, the highly recommended, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Berkeley author, Michael Chabon.

I'm currently reading Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. I'm enjoying it, but at 1000 pages, it's going to be a bit hard to finish in the 3 weeks we get from the Oakland Public Library! I'm planning to read How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia next, so I was glad to hear about this contest.